Things That Will Never Be
by The Lady Arianrod
Summary: Éowyn takes a walk during the night and contemplates her search for freedom and a new life. She meets up with a certain Ranger and watches the sunrise with him. A poetic angst vignette with one-sided romance.


Things That Will Never Be by Takato's Dreamer (rainytears)

a/n: this is a little Éowyn reflection piece with some angst and romance.

Disclaimer: Andrew Llyod Webber owns this song "Memory" from cats and J.R.R. Tolkien owns LOTR.

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//_Midnight_

_Not a sound from the pavement_

_Has the moon lost her memory? _

_She is smiling alone.//_

Éowyn, a daughter of the mighty kings of Rohan, walked along the quiet streets of the city. The sunset had faded into the cold, heavy blanket of night. The blond woman sighed, feeling the passage of time making her feet heavier day by day.

_A cage. _

This city was like a wrought iron cage, an encasing sphere of duty and the ever-monotonous life of being the niece of the King Théoden. Under the pale, distant starlight, Éowyn wished to herself for a brief escape, for a flight amongst the distant galaxies in the sky.

"_I wonder how many people have looked at those stars. Many thousands of princes and princesses have gazed upon the expanse while they were chained down by beds of gold and blankets of silk_," Éowyn mused to herself, lowering her eyes and looking to her left and right.

The small thatched huts of the humble, content peasants often angered her. These people expressed themselves with their sincere eyes and their meager clothing and belongings. They were truly happy, truly free.

_//In the lamplight, the withered leaves collect at my feet_

  


_And the wind begins to moan._

_Memory, _

_All alone in the moonlight._

_I can dream of the old days_

_Life was beautiful then.//_

It was autumn. The beautiful season of brown and gold had fallen upon Rohan and Middle-Earth, and a few leaves gently floated upon a midnight breeze. Éowyn stretched out her arms as far as her royal white gown would allow to catch the breeze.

However, her wings fell to her sides before she could take flight. The fair-haired princess was doomed yet again to wander the streets aimlessly, searching for someone or something....

Or for herself.

She felt the faint echoes of a past happiness enter her mind for a moment and then swiftly dash away like deer in the forest. Éowyn thought of her parents and of Éomer and what joys they had once experienced. 

It was all gone now. Only the Éowyn lingered after the death of her parents and the constant military missions of her brother. Théoden was also a shell of his former self, and so dwindled away the joy of the Lady of Rohan.....

_//I remember the time I knew what happiness was_

_Let the memory live again._

_Every streetlamp seems to beat _

_A fatalistic warning.//_

"What is happiness? I suppose that it comes with freedom..." Éowyn murmured to the still midnight air. She looked at the faint flickering of candle-light in the homes of the peasants and smiled a weak smile, her eyes downcast with unspilled tears. 

"_Oh, how my life has changed.... _" Éowyn thought to herself, her soft shoes making faint imprints in the gravely dirt. 

Each hidden house on this main street was a sea-borne vessel, a ship with a course of its own. The boats of the night sailed on, each one radiating with its own passions and desires, and its own warmth. 

Éowyn had neither a boat to share with anyone nor warmth.

She had become cold, like a distant white eagle perched on the branches of a gnarled beech tree.

_//Someone mutters, and the streetlamps sputters,_

_And soon it will be morning._

_Daylight, I must wait for the sunrise._

_I must think of a new life _

_And I mustn't give in.//_

Éowyn dreaded the morning. Its cold rays of ill-born sunlight would set the path for yet another day in this same castle, the Golden Hall of Rohan. 

"_It will all continue... it is inevitable, like time_," Éowyn told herself as she closed her eyes and tried to not look into the dark sky that would soon become light. 

"I do want another life.... a life of freedom," Éowyn murmured to the early hours of the morning. 

She heard a noise behind her. 

_//When the dawn comes tonight will be a memory too,_

_And a new day will begin._

_Burned out ends of smoky days_

_The stone-cold smell of the morning._

_A streetlamp dies, another night is over._

_Another day is dying.//_

It was Aragorn. He looked into Éowyn's eyes, sensing that she was agitated. He stared calmly with his deep blue-gray eyes and took a few steps closer to her.

"What are you doing out this early in the morning, M'lady?" he asked her in his calm, smooth tone. 

Éowyn looked into Aragorn's eyes with a piercing glare as if evaluating him. She wished that she could rush into his arms and ask him to take her away, but she didn't dare.

"I came out here to think," Éowyn replied curtly, her cold façade still covering her soul. Aragorn nodded, still looking into the sky-blue eyes of the Lady of Rohan.

The dark velvet of midnight had long since passed, and a faint bluish-gray had begun to creep along the corners of the sky. As the two of them stood there, both royalty in the world of Men, the sky was ever-changing above them.

"You were searching for something," Aragorn said quietly. Éowyn's jaw was firmly set and she raised it defiantly.

"You cannot affirm this, Lord Aragorn," she answered, studying his features. The pale light of morning made him look highly intelligent and more aged than usual. He carried the lines of many years of war in his face.

"But..." Éowyn began, "you are right."

_//Touch me, it's so easy to leave me._

_All alone with the memory_

_Of my days in the sun._

_If you touch me, you'll understand what happiness is. _

_Look, a new day has begun.// _

There he stood, the heir to Gondor's throne and from the powerful lineage of Isildur. This was the man who had ridden into the Golden Hall a mere other face in the crowd....

And yet now, he was witnessing the sunrise with Éowyn. 

She stepped towards him for a moment, touching his face lightly with her pale hand. He took her hand in his and brought it away from his face. 

"Éowyn, Lady of Rohan, you are destined to stay here in the Golden Hall although your spirit flies elsewhere. I cannot change your life or free you from this destiny," Aragorn said softly.

"Aragorn, you have already changed me," Éowyn said softly, distant desperation in her voice. Aragorn looked into her painfully honest eyes and smiled for a moment.

"I am sure that you will become a wonderful and influential woman. You have made an impact on me already as a woman among women, one who stands apart in vigor and vitality," Aragorn said to the blond Lady, offering her some brief condolence. 

With that, his rough hands left her royal ones. Éowyn felt his touch linger for a moment, but then the breeze of the dawn blew them away.

She looked at Aragorn who was watching the expanse of the sky and the faint sunlight beginning to water the earth. He was also fingering a small pendant which hung around his neck.

It was the Evenstar. 

Éowyn turned from Aragorn son of Arathorn, looking at the ground as she went back into the Golden Hall to continue her life. 

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_end notes: _hmmm, I rather like how I blended the atmosphere of the song with Éowyn's angsty midnight walk. Sorry for the one-sided romance all you Éowyn fans.... maybe I'll do a Faramir/Éowyn romance someday. 

Review this in a manner that reflects how the story was laid out and if it was good or not!

  
  



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